The present invention relates to a stacked steampath having both rotary and fixed components formed of wheels and rings respectively about a common axis. The present invention also relates to a dovetail bucket wheel for the stacked steam turbine.
Current integral cover reaction buckets are formed of large quantities of individual buckets that are assembled onto a machine rotor forging. Similarly, current nozzle stages are formed of large quantities of nozzles assembled onto a stator casing. The time and cost associated with rotor forgings and stator casings, rotor and stator machining, bucket and nozzle stock material, bucket and nozzle machining, and rotor and stator assembly add significantly to the costs to the steampath. Accordingly, there is a need to reduce the time and cost of manufacturing and assembling steampath hardware without impacting the integrity of the overall steam turbine design.